The Lonely Mouse
by cocopops1995
Summary: Allura's demeanor towards Keith is growing increasingly colder, and has been ever since she found out about his Galra heritage. It needs to stop, and Shiro has and idea of how to help her see that what she's doing is wrong. After all, Grandpa Shiro's animal illustrations never fail.


**AN: I did a thing because Allura's behavior towards Keith and everyone else's failure to say something about it seriously bothered me.**

 **Takes place in season 2 episode 11 after they defeated the zombie robeast**

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Shiro felt Keith tense next to him as Allura answered his question with a single syllable. He clenched his teeth as she answered Lance's question with much more enthusiasm. Had she _really_ not gotten over her prejudice yet? He understood her cold behavior toward the Blade of Marmora, he didn't agree with it, but he understood. He behavior towards Keith however? That he couldn't understand. It was like she blamed Keith for everything the Galra had done in the name of Zarkon. As if he hadn't been fighting against those very Galra tooth and nail, the same as the rest of the team, for as long as she knew him. No. This had to stop.

"Hunk," Allura said with a warm smile aimed at the yellow paladin, "Thank you for getting the scultrite."

Hunk smiled, "No problem." his smile turned into a frown a minute later as Allura failed to continue, "You know, Keith was there too." he added, pointing a thumb in Keith's direction.

Allura glared, actually _glared_ at Keith before turning back to the castle controls. Shiro shook his head as he saw Keith slump slightly next to him. Something needed to be done about this, _now._ And not just to spare Keith's feelings. He saw the others bristle at Allura's cold treatment of their fellow paladin. They needed to trust her to make good decisions, which wasn't something they could fully do if she kept treating on of their own as the enemy.

He would need to be subtle about it, though, he thought as he gave Keith's shoulder a squeeze and dismissed the team, telling them to go get some rest before they get to Olkarion. She was stubborn and wouldn't react to a direct chastisement. Shiro let out a quiet sigh, it looked like he was going to have to fall back on his grandfather's teach by illustrations technique. He hadn't had to use this technique since Keith was fifteen. He hoped it would work on the Altean princess.

He joined Allura at the controls, "Princess, may I have a word?"

Allura turned her head to him and smiled, "Of course. Is there something you need?"

"Not exactly," he said slowly, "Actually, I'd like to tell you a story."

Allura shot him an incredulous look and he felt his face flush slightly. This had been so much _easier_ when he had been trying to teach someone young and inexperienced. Teaching a 10 000-plus-year-old princess was just plain _awkward._ But this was important so he pressed on.

"Just humor me, alright?" Shiro added quickly, "It won't be a long story and I promise there is a point to it."

Allura eyed him for another moment before giving in, "Alright then." she said and pressed a few buttons before turning to face him, "You have my full attention."

"Great." he said, still feeling incredibly awkward about the situation, but also determined. He stepped off the platform and sat on it's edge and patted the floor beside him as a gesture for Allura to join him.

Allura hesitated a moment before settling down beside him and watching him expectantly.

Shiro took a deep breath, pictured his grandfather's 'teaching face' and began his story.

"Once," his brain scrambled for a moment, trying to decide which animal would be best to use for this illustration. His eyes fell on the space mice and smiled inwardly. "Once there was a little mouse." he saw Allura perk slightly at that. Good, he had her hooked. "The little mouse never met his mother and his father abandoned him when he was very young. For a long time the mouse wondered on his own, searching for his family. Then, one day, he met some other mice. They were not his family, but they became his friends, and he soon grew to love them as his family. In turn, they loved him as a part of their little rag-tag family too.

"Now, these were no ordinary mice. No, they were a special group of warrior mice. They fought to protect all other mice from the evil Rat King and his army of evil rats. The little mouse's years alone had taught him many useful skills as a warrior, and he fought valiantly against every rat soldier he came up against. He was fierce and loyal. He trusted his team absolutely, and they absolutely trusted him. It was this trust that allowed the warrior mice to work so well together.

Then, one eventful day, the little mouse learned that his mother, the one he had never known, had been a rat!"

Allura let out a shocked gasp beside Shiro and he nodded gravely before continuing, "He was shocked, to say the least, but he didn't let that change who he was. He may have been part rat, but he had been part rat all his life and that hadn't made him evil. He was still him, no matter who his mother was. All his friends felt the same way. They knew who he truly was inside and didn't even consider judging him for the crimes of his long-gone mother's race.

"All, that is, except one. The leader of their team, in fact. She seemed to have forgotten all that he had done to fight the rats. She seemed to have forgotten how much she trusted him. She fixated on the part of him that he had no control over. She seemed to blame him for every crime the rats had committed."

"But that's outrageous!" Allura exclaimed, "She couldn't possibly blame him for something like that! He didn't ask his father to fall in love with a rat, and he certainly didn't ask his mother to give birth to him."

Shiro nodded in agreement, pleased that she was grasping the point, now he just needed to get her to see how it applied to herself, "And besides that, the little mouse had never known his mother. So she'd had no influence over his life whatsoever."

"Exactly." Allura agreed, "That leader mouse most definitely did not have good leading skills."

"I agree," Shiro said, carefully keeping his tone calm and neutral. This was the most important part: "But Allura, answer me this question: why is it so wrong for that leader mouse to judge the little mouse based on such trivial details, but it's okay for you to judge Keith based on the exact same trivial details?"

Allura opened her mouth to reply but then froze and her eyes went wide. Shiro could see the exact moment when the penny dropped. She dropped her gaze to her hands and did not answer him. Shiro was sure that she got the point but he felt the need to cement it.

"Not too long ago you trusted Keith enough that you were willing to be alone in space with him, and you trusted him to keep you safe in that instance. Now you can barely look at him, and when you do your looks are filled with venom."

Allura did not say anything, but Shiro could tell from the tilt of her ears that she was still listening to him. He laid a hand on her shoulder, "I'm not accusing you of being a bad leader, Princess. I'm just trying to stop you from becoming one." he assured her, "Just think about the little mouse, okay? How the story ends is entirely dependent on you."

With that he stood up and headed to his own room to try and get some rest. He had done was he could, it was all up to Allura now. But he trusted her to do the right thing.

And when Keith asked him later that day what he had said to Allura, he merely smiled and said: "Grandpa Shiro's animal illustrations. Works every time."


End file.
